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Manhattan bus route renumberings
Originally, bus routes were given franchise numbers by New York City. These franchise numbers used borough prefixes (M for Manhattan). The utilization of these franchises was different by different operators. Fifth Avenue Coach did not use the franchise numbers, and put its routes together in such a way that they actually did not correspond to the franchised routes (a single Fifth Avenue route might be pieced together from different franchises). Therefore there is no easy correspondence between Fifth Avenue routes and franchise numbers. New York City Omnibus Co. also used its own proprietary route numbers, but the routes mostly did correspond to franchised routes, albeit with different route numbers. All other operators tended to use the franchise numbers assigned by the City to their routes. When Manhattan & Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority took over Fifth Avenue, NYCO, and Surface Transit, Inc. routes, a uniform M-prefixing was done to all routes (except for former FACo 15, which operated mostly in Queens, and FACo 16, which operated entirely in Queens, both of which got Q-prefixed numbers). This meant that NYCO Route 1, whose franchise number was actually M25, became M1, and created some duplications. As a result, several routes got renumbered (for example, New York City Transit Authority Rte. M1 became M22). In addition, because of one-waying of avenues, sometimes different routes became combined (for example, FACo. Rte. 1 and NYCO Rte. 1 were both combined in MaBSTOA's new M1). These tables (restricted to routes that operated in Manhattan) show the correspondence between old route numbers and new ones. Routes taken from Fifth Avenue Coach Lines Original Number Current Number Route Name Fifth Ave Fifth-110th-Seventh Fifth-110th-St. Nicholas Fifth-110th-Convent Fifth-110th-Riverside Fifth-57th-Riverside 72d St.-57th St. Crosstown Fifth-57th-Riverside Fifth-Queens 57th St. Crosstown Routes taken from other operators using franchise numbers Original Number Proprietary Route Number (NYCO) Current Number Route Name Previous bus operator(s) Previous streetcar operator(s) Madison-Chambers Crosstown Green/Comprehensive (never a streetcar) 12 (discontinued) Spring-Delancey Crosstown Green/NYC Omnibus (never a streetcar) 49th-50th Sts. Crosstown Green/Comprehensive (never a streetcar) 79th St. Crosstown Green/NYC Omnibus (never a streetcar) 86th St. Crosstown Green/NYC Omnibus NY & Harlem 96th St. Crosstown Green/NYC Omnibus (never a streetcar) 66th St. Crosstown Comprehensive (never a streetcar) M8 (discontinued) Grand St. Crosstown Avenue B & E Broadway Dry Dock Avenue B-E Broadway Avenue B & E Broadway Dry Dock Avenue C-Houston Hamilton/Triangle/NYC Omnibus (never a streetcar) York Ave East Side 2d Ave M12 (discontinued) 86th St.-York East Side 2d Ave First Ave East Side (never a streetcar) M14 (discontinued) First-Second Aves East Side 2d Ave Second Ave East Side 2d Ave 8th St. Crosstown NYC Omnibus NY Rys 14th St. Crosstown-Ave. A NYC Omnibus NY Rys 23d St. Crosstown NYC Omnibus NY Rys 34th St. Crosstown NYC Omnibus NY Rys 34th St. Crosstown NYC Omnibus NY Rys 116th St. Crosstown NYC Omnibus NY Rys Lexington-Lenox NYC Omnibus NY Rys Broadway-Columbus-Lenox NYC Omnibus NY Rys Sixth Ave NYC Omnibus NY Rys Seventh Ave NYC Omnibus NY Rys Madison-Fourth Ave Madison/NYC Omnibus NY & Harlem Eighth Ave 8th Ave/NYC Omnibus 8th & 9th Ave Ninth-Amsterdam 8th Ave/NYC Omnibus 8th & 9th Ave Broadway-Kingsbridge Surface Transit TARS Third Ave Surface Transit TARS 125th St. Crosstown Surface Transit TARS M103 (discontinued) 59th St. Crosstown Surface Transit TARS 42d St.-Broadway Surface Transit TARS M105 (discontinued) Tenth Ave-Broadway Surface Transit TARS 42d St. Crosstown Surface Transit TARS New route numbers Current Number Route Name M58 57th St. Crosstown-York 66th-72d St. Crosstown 125th St. Crosstown-LaGuardia 96th-106th St. Crosstown Color codes for previous route numbers in above tables Colors for current routes are as used on current MTA bus maps. See also Bus consolidation in New York City Category:Bus transportation in New York City